Many consumers have the wrong notion that small businesses don’t have a chance at surviving in the highly competitive business environment of the 21st century. They couldn’t be more wrong, and here are the reasons why. With technological advancements and social media tools that span the globe, there are now many strategies available to small businesses to help them achieve their business goals. One of the available strategies to them is social media marketing. In fact, small businesses can maximize the features of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media networking sites to successfully put their business endeavors in the limelight and within the reach of customers from around the world.

Any of these social media platforms have at least 50 million to 350 million users. Each day millions more become members and they come from everywhere on the planet. These platforms are essentially networking sites which make them ideal for small businesses to promote their wares. With social media small businesses can greatly impact the niche and the global market as well. At the same time they can generate potential leads.

Strategies for Social Media Marketing

1. Small businesses must strive for optimization. If the web content is not optimized then the business venture is not making the most of the available social media tools that their competitors as well as large businesses are successfully utilizing. Optimization helps avoid penalties from the major search engines. If optimization is used correctly, site rankings increase and the business venture gains immense rewards in terms of brand awareness.

To be competitive, small businesses have to learn about essential social media marketing strategies. Marketing tools change all the time and so it is also critical to keep abreast of technological innovations. Careful planning and foresight help a business in achieving its goals. It becomes easier for small businesses to expand if they have a significant online presence. There is no easier way to expand the client based of a fledgling enterprise than through social media marketing.

2. These days, the forming of business alliances may also be done on the Web. Expanding the social contacts of the enterprise can be done by cost-effective measures. One method is to build links with websites that are relevant to the business. These alliances, once formed, can boost the popularity and exposure of any new business. Besides, link building is a great way to promote services & products.

3. There are traditional methods of business advertising and there are also boosting the business profile on social networking platforms. To create a bigger impact on the market today, it is important to pay attention to the business profile that website visitors arrive at. If an “About Us” page contains a link with a significant impact then the company can expect a number of new leads. Visitor of the website also appreciate being presented with short, concise, and relevant information about the products & services being offered.

4. Dynamic and responsive websites have numerous advantages over traditional sites. Visitors are drawn to sites that are arresting, attention-grabbing, and interactive. When great content, layout and site SEO are all present and in the right mix, there may be no need to spend money on advertising strategies since the site itself attracts high volumes of traffic already. When the keywords are highly ranked, potential leads will keep coming in.

In Conclusion

There are many social media marketing campaigns available today and it is up to the management to choose which strategies to adopt. No matter how big or small a business venture is the management has to consider the potential advantages of engaging in social media marketing. These approaches can steer the whole company towards the right direction.

We have all discovered, again, the only constant is cultural change. Just look around and you will see state and presidential politics on messy display, financial institutions in chaos and Wall Street fluctuating.

This is not the first, nor will it be the last time that we see these ups and downs.

However, you may need different tactics and strategies to help your small business prosper as some small business owners have never been through a downturn.

The most important decision is to determine if you want to stay in business. I know there are lots of talking heads on TV and radio saying it’s time to put your dream on hold that your dream is no longer available, that you may want to consider finding a breadline.

How dare these multimillionaires, sometimes billionaires, tell you how to live your life. They have no experience, for the most part, of how an ordinary person wants to have their American dream.

Strategic Thinking to Help You Prosper:

First, commit to stay in business.

Once the decision is made to either start or stay in business, you will find yourself attracting all sorts of assistance.

Second, determine the niche for your business.

Remember, the smaller the niche, the higher the reward. To say you work with everyone is a misnomer. You may choose to work with left-handed people who live on the East Coast born after 1975. That is specific. You get the idea.

Third, have better and more positive thoughts.

Ignore the pundits who tell you to close your doors, sell your house, eat dog food and hunker down in your bed. That’s if you did not take their advice and sell your bed! Thoughts lead to action; action leads to results and results lead to success. Bad thoughts breed bad results, good thoughts breed good results. It’s that simple.

Fourth, focus on what you want.

Go for the big fish, not the guppies. If you want to make money, find the people with the money. It continues to surprise me that small business owners keep going back to an empty well. If you have tried with prospects and they have not hired you because they either can’t make up their minds, have no money or are unclear, believe them. Move forward.

Fifth, make sure you are going in the right direction.

Do you have a plan for your business? Do you have a business vision? If not, you will never knew if you are on the right path. Decide what you want out of your business. If you want money from your business, how much? If you want your business to allow you freedom, where and when? Be clear about what you want.

Sixth, Market, Market, Market.

Some small businesses and professionals easily fall off the marketing train when times are tough. This is the time for real marketing. What happens is when people are busy making money, they don’t market because they have all the business they want. Then, when there is a slide, they say they can’t afford to market. Well, you can’t afford not to market. You can market your business in numerous cost free or low cost ways.

a) Be personal with new prospects. Attend Chamber of Commerce meetings to get the lay of the land.

b) Partner with someone else. It can be a one-off or a bigger project.

c) Write articles to attract people to your website.

d) Write a book. You can easily write an e-book in less than thirty days.

e) Sign up for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

f) Hire an expert to provide an overview of your marketing plan.

Seventh, Change Your Attitude.

It’s all in the attitude! If you focus on and spend time with losers, you are one. Loser, that is. If you spend time with successful people, you to are a success, if by nothing else than association. Choose your circle of friends, associates and peers wisely. Remember, you are the sum of people you spend time with.

Put these new strategies in place for at least thirty days and you will see a movement towards prosperity for you and your small business.

Whether you’re just getting started in small business, or you’re a seasoned professional, you know that leads are critical to keeping your business afloat. You can either pay a lot of money for new leads, or you can follow these creative steps to generate them without paying a dime.

Here are five powerful ways to generate new leads without a marketing budget:

1. Networking– Using your customer network, frequently remind the top 20 people in your circle that you’re here to help them. Always focus on the ways that you can help your members without coming across as self-serving. By helping others first, they will help you with new leads, in return.

2. Publishing– Write articles and blog posts frequently. As you build up your body of work, you’ll generate leads from multiple directions. Not only will this build your credibility, but it will also position you as an expert in your field.

3. Referrals– Frequently ask your current customers for referrals. Ask you customers for the names of people that are of the same quality and caliber they are. Develop multiple referral systems to gather clients from different areas.

4. Niche yourself– Do not try to sell everything to everyone. Instead, specialize and become the number one in the World for your particular niche. When prospects are looking for a solution to their problem, your name is much more likely to come up if you’re a specialist in your niche.

5. Build an email list– By building a list, you’ll have a direct conversation on a frequent basis, with people that really want to know what you have to say. Email is very intimate and it allows your customers to focus on your message much longer than social media.

I have been intimately involved in building, growing and consulting many small businesses both online and offline for many years and what I have found is that entrepreneurs at all stages of growth and development are anxious to discover both strategic and cost-effective marketing tools that will help them attract new profitable customers in an ever-changing dynamic market place environment.

Increasingly, small businesses are smartly adding blogs as a key tactical online marketing technique for three important reasons.

3 Reasons Why Blogging Will Help You Grow Your Small Business

1. Blogging Is a Great Strategy To Help You Increase Visibility To Your Ideal Targeted Market.

The bottom line is that incorporating a blog into your online marketing strategy can help you improve your chances to increase sales and grow your business.

Do understand that this is not a quick or short-term sales success technique. Be committed to a long view of blogging and this technique will help you build value as a lead generation tool over time.

But if you have the determination to post consistently adding content that is fresh and helpful to your ideal target niche market, it will help you gain a competitive edge over your competitors.

The most important tip for you to follow when starting a business blog is to “Define The Purpose of Your Blog.” Just as any company must have a business plan, your blog must have a specific direction and purpose.

For instance, if your blog’s purpose is to help your customers and prospects with information that delivers tips, solutions free advice and/or adds value to your primary product or service, then make it clear.

If fact, make it very easy for any first time visitor to your blog to recognize what it’s all about. The key here is to write your blog posts with your end-users in mind.

If you do decide to develop a blog as a marketing tool to help you grow your small business, focus on building it around two basic criteria:

Your most valuable keywords

Continually adding new and informative content

If you do this, you can gain leverage allowing you to effectively compete against the big boy brands.

As search engines continue to shake up the way they rank sites for relevancy, adding fresh and regularly updated content will continue to be an essential marketing strategy for your small business.

A couple key tips here are to:

Differentiate your blog and make it stand out in a crowded and competitive marketplace. Make it “cool” for a lack of a better way to say it.

Write your blog posts with your prospective searchers in mind. Put yourself in their shoes and use words and terms that they would be thinking in their heads when they are searching for what you offer.

3. Credible Content Will Help You Drive Traffic To Your Company Website.

If your objective is to build a blog that helps you generate sales leads and/or strengthen relationships with your existing customers, then you must realize that great content is what will help you build your reader and visitor base.

In fact, think of it this way, the content you deliver in your posts is like the food (or nourishment) you feed your readers and those who are searching the Internet for the information, tips and solutions you are writing about.

Plus, it’s the information that keeps them interested and hooked on your blog and will motivate them to share it with their friends and family. This helps to make it viral and valuable.

I stated it above and will emphasize here again that you should ask yourself “why am I publishing this blog?”

The answer to this question will lead you to creating great content. But continue to be diligent in keeping your focus on THEM (your reader).

In fact, paste this famous marketing saying on your computer screen as you write every post, “It’s all about them, it’s not about you.”

If you actually do this, you will create content your readers will be interested in and the by-product will be that you increase your competitive marketplace leadership, your SEO rankings, your sales leads and interested customer or client prospects.

One more tip when writing a business blog is to position yourself as the expert in your niche.

No one will actually come to you and crown you the expert but if you really do have expertise, experience and education in your area, then proclaim yourself the expert and share some of your successes and testimonials. This will increase your social proof helping to solidify the credibility of your blog enormously.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that incorporating a blog into your online marketing strategy will help you improve your chances to increase sales and grow your business.